We had to do it! says RIAA’s Cary Sherman
p2pnet news view | RIAA News:- RIAA assistant chief dissembler Cary Sherman says suing Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony BMG customers was the only way to go.
The Big 4 extortion unit is trying to convince the world its new policy of muscling ISPs into doing its dirty work for it represents a significant and positive policy change.
“If you can go back to that time in your mind and remember that file sharing was growing at logarithmic pace,” Sherman told CNet News, “referring to 2003, not long after file-sharing service Napster had triggered a music-swapping frenzy.
“It was unbelievable how much infringement was going on and there was no sense that it was illegal,” he says earnestly, continuing in a quavering voice (at least, we assume it was quavering), “There were no legal cases or precedent, nothing to discourage people from this kind of behavior.”
Sherman once described the RIAA victimisation campaign against thousands of American families as tough love, and his latest ruminations came, “hours after The Wall Street Journal published a story on Friday about the RIAA’s decision to end its five-year-long legal campaign against individuals who the group accused of pirating music,” says the story.
To support his bafflegab that the RIAA sue ‘em all campaign lawsuits were effective, “Sherman also points to the meteoric growth in legal sales since the RIAA began taking file sharers to court,” says CNET.
Meteoric? Anyhow, CNet has His Glibness stating »»»
In 2004, digital music sales were $183.4 million or a little over 1 percent of the $12.3 billion in total music sales. For 2008, digital music sales are projected to be $3 billion or 30 percent of total music sales. The music industry couldn’t have accomplished that had piracy been allowed to grow unchecked, Sherman said.
One can’t help wondering if he was using imaginative statistics supplied by the ever-creative NPD group which humourously claims the volume of legal music downloaded in Q3 increased 29% over the same period a year ago, beating the growth in illegal music downloads over the P2P networks which, it says with states, rose 23% y/y.
But, “I’m not sure I entirely see the story here,” Eric Garland, CEO of media measurement company BigChampagne.
In fact, “The rate of growth paid downloads is down dramatically from previous years, as one would expect,” he told p2pnet, “Because the rate of growth is not really an instructive measure here.”
He went on »»»
When paid downloads increase from ten songs sold to fifty, that’s a 500% increase, but only 40 songs sold. Yet an increase from selling ten million songs to fifteen million songs is only a 50% increase — but five MILLION in new sales.
Put another way, it is the volume of activity that makes for a real comparison, and in our estimation the volume of P2P music downloads exceeds the paid downloads more than ten to one.
On the other hand, though, NPD’s assessment of the growth rate in P2P far outpaces our own. We do not observe a 23% increase in P2P music downloads y-o-y. On the contrary, while there is significant growth in film, TV and elsewhere, music is relatively flat.
Note the the growth rate of iTunes et al has slowed considerably and is expected to continue to do so.
Meanwhile, the final escalation of the Big $ attacks on people who keep them fat and happy was aimed at American university students.
But their RIAA piously said its bizarre sue ‘em all marketing effort was nothing more than an essential part of their education; that the corporate music enforcement unit was helping them to become aware of penalties associated with the awful crime of sharing with each other, said p2pnet recently, adding »»»
“Years ago, college students were our best customers,” RIAA spin doctor Cary Sherman (right) once lamented, wiping away a crocodile tear.
“Now they’re among our worst customers.”
One could draw a parallel between Sherman (and his boss, Mitch Bainwol) in Lewis Carroll’s the Walrus and the Carpenter.
In the last verse »»»
“O Oysters,” said the Carpenter,
“You’ve had a pleasant run!
Shall we be trotting home again?’
But answer came there none -
And this was scarcely odd, because
They’d eaten every one.
We’ve frequently said the lawsuits are not only driving away the Big 4’s former, actual and potential customers, they’re also seriously interfering with students’ educations and mental welfare, not to mention staff who are expected to act as corporate copyright enforcers.
Not so, claim the labels. It’s all good, positive education. It teaches students their proper roles in life; one of the most important lesson for them to learn is to respect intellectual property law as we define it.
Stay tuned.
doing its dirty work for it – ‘I ain’t no copyright cop,’ ISP tells RIAA, December 22, 2008
CNet News – RIAA’s Cary Sherman says lawsuits were the only option, December 19, 2008
tough love – RIAA lawsuits are ‘tough love’, Ocgtober 18, 2007
ever-creative NPD group - ‘Legal’ downloads beat ‘illegal’ ones: NPD, December 19, 2008
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December 22nd, 2008 at 6:45 pm
I guess the RIAA president never went to college.
Because he and his statistics team should know;
CORRELATION DOES NOT EQUAL CAUSATION.
How embarrassing, this is undergraduate level knowledge.
MC
December 22nd, 2008 at 10:33 pm
he never watched the matrix either
causality he doesn’t just understand.
Oh and i have a business where i undercut everyone , guess whose doing tons more business and has in the end more profit?
AHA
that’s right lower song costs to ten cents or 5 cents and watch the so called middle ground torrenters and p2pers look to that.
But they don’t get it so same old same old.
NOW we get DRM on internet. Guess what that means.
Hackers uncorking all this and the billions that will be spent on it.
AND i will say it so what happens when they make a mistake who pays for that ???
The ISP, the RIAA?
YA exactly , pass laws of net neutrality and that ends this ability and thus we push the RIAA into a corner of get with technology or go away business model.
December 22nd, 2008 at 10:37 pm
oh and does he even realize yet they launched 12 lawsuits oh last week?
glue has higher intelligence
December 22nd, 2008 at 11:53 pm
He will be forever be remembered as the cartels puff piece.
December 23rd, 2008 at 3:10 am
they probably believe that if they continue they are going to get their ass kicked. But it is too late the ass kicker are lauched and they are coming their way.
RUN SHITMAN! RUN!